Jobless graduates seek meeting with President over their future

The all island Tharuna Aruna 3 - jobless graduates association is seeking an appointment with President Mahinda Rajapaksa for a discussion on the provision of jobs, one of its members, Chandana Abeywardene said.

Mr. Abeywardene was a victim of the police attack when the graduates launched their protest campaign on Friday. He said that if the discussion fails, a protest campaign which may take the form of a death fast would be launched. Under the Mahinda Chinthana programme 10,000 graduates were to be employed in the Government and private sectors.

The graduates were trained for three months by the Skills Development Ministry and given a further training for three months before being sent for employment. An initial batch of 2088 was found employment in June 2006.

After the jobless graduates association demonstrated on January 10, 2007 against the Government’s inability to find all its members employment, a discussion was held between the association and the Presidential Secretary and a written statement obtained that by February 28, 2007 all graduates would be found employment.

But to date the assurance given has not been honoured, the graduates complain. They say the Government had made no financial allocation to fulfil this promise. But the Government’s stance is that no allocations can be made till the decision of the Cabinet sub-committee appointed to study the promise made to the undergraduates, is made known.